Cda Racer Knows Luck
Coeur d’Alene’s Brian Tibesar will be part of the field for Sunday’s Top Comp Eliminator class at the AHRA World Finals, but whatever he does, it will be difficult to top winning his first national event, the Super Comp title at the Northwest Nationals in Seattle.
“That was the strangest race I’ve ever run,” Tibesar said. “Nothing seemed to go right. My lights were terrible, but I had the luck with me when I needed it.”
But it took more than luck for Tibesar to topple former national champion David Rampy in the finals of the 7.90 ET class.
“When we had to have a good run we had it,” said Jerry Tibesar, Brian’s father and crew chief. “When we had our bad passes the other guys did worse.”
Tibesar joins James Arsenault - a two-time, back-to-back winner at Sonoma, Calif., in 1993 and 1994 - as the only area drivers to win national events.
Paid to not play
Money is the key to being a successful racer in the 1990s, but it wasn’t always that way.
Larry Van Unen tells the story of the day he was paid to not race.
Van Unen, known primarily for his driving and innovative mechanical skills, was on one occasion an extraordinary intimidator.
In the mid-‘60s Van Unen built a blown gas dragster featuring twin in-line 427 Chevy engines.
“We set track records just about everywhere we went,” said Van Unen.
The hybrid dragster got attention from more than just fans. At a 1965 race in Long Beach, Calif., and in the company of the likes of a young Don Prudhomme - Van Unen changed from running gas to alcohol.
His off-the-trailer pass of 6.56 seconds, fueled by alcohol, was within two-tenths of a second of the national record for Top Fuel cars.
Fearing the ultimate embarrassment of losing to an alcohol car, the stars complained to the track promoter and threatened to withdraw their cars.
“This was a time when you got $750 to win and $500 for runner-up,” Van Unen said.
In order to keep his top racers, the promoter gave Van Unen $500 not to run. A week later twin-engine cars were outlawed.
Top female driver
Paula Martin, a funny-car driver here for this weekend’s racing at the World Finals, has a best elapsed time of 5.601 seconds.
Martin, the 10th-quickest funny-car driver here in World Finals competition, is one of just five women who have raced in pro classes over the years at the AHRA World Finals in Spokane.
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